Shadow of the Cross

Got to hit the Marshalltown Farmers Market in front of the Courthouse again after work. Looked like the same number of vendors today, but the heat kept some customers away (check out the photo at the end of this post, taken as I was leaving the Market). But still had several good conversations for the hour and fifteen minutes I was out there. Gave out several tracts, a 180 DVD, and a pocket New Testament. Of the conversations, one was from a lady who was interested to know what church I was from, and who asked questions about those who have never heard the gospel.

That is an interesting question, and one I love to address, because we hear it a lot out on the street, and because most people use it as an excuse to reject the God of the Bible, and the Bible altogether. I responded with the teaching from Romans 1:19-20, that God has revealed himself to all men everywhere, so much so that we are all without excuse. And I also included that fact that God also has written his law in our hearts, Romans 2:15. It is a false starting point to ask, "What about those who never heard?", because God says he has given ample information to each man through creation and through conscience. God draws men to himself through this general revelation, and the evidence from scripture is that those who respond to this general revelation, God will move heavan and earth to send them the message of the gospel. He did this in the case of Cornelius in Acts chapter 10, and in Peter's retelling of the account, he says,

Acts 11:14 "Who shall tell thee words, whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved."
So its not that they don't have the information they need, its what are they doing with the information that God has given them. And what men do is choose to follow false systems of religion, instead of bowing the knee and submitting to the God they are aware of. Greg Kokul has a great piece on this on his website, Stand to Reason, www.str.org.

The other good conversation was with a believer who really understood the use of the law to bring the knowledge of sin, and was very encouraging to me. God has used people like this just to come along and be a blessing, for which I am truly thankful.


May God encourage YOU to reach out to the lost with the hope of eternal life that is Christ Jesus. Like Mark Cahill has well said, the one thing you won't be able to do in Heaven is to witness of the love and mercy and goodness of the Lord Jesus to a lost person - the time to do that is right now!